y thing
worthy of notice in this populous place, except the castle. We passed
the Maison de Charite, in front of which is a new cross lately erected
by the Mission, on the scale of that at Avignon, and profusely gilt and
ornamented. The same agency also has lately re-established an Ursuline
convent of fifty-two nuns in this place. The cathedral is old and mean,
and apparently under no very strict regulations, for an old woman was
selling cakes in the aisle close to one of the chapels. We went into a
vault beneath to see a marble statue of St. Martha, which has merit in
itself, and by the light of a single wax candle, had a striking effect:
the great admiration, however, in which it is held here may chiefly
arise from an opinion of its miraculous powers. "Elle devenoit invisible
pendant la Revolution," whispered our young Crispin.--"Oui, elle etoit
cachee, voila ce que tu veux dire, mon petit--." "Eh! non, pardon,
Messieurs, elle se cacha; mais il y a trois ans qu'elle se montre
encore," replied the little fellow, with the most confident gravity. I
trust that this monstrous fiction did not originate in the Ursuline
convent which he mentioned; and that the fifty-two good ladies employ
their time in more charitable and useful actions than in filling the
heads of poor children with stories so hurtful to the real interests of
religion. However credulous our young guide was, he was not mercenary,
being with difficulty persuaded to accept a franc or two for what he
styled the pleasure of having conducted us. We next visited the castle
of Tarascon, now used as the public prison, and in which 1500 English
were confined during the war. The enormous height and massiveness of
its walls, which overtop the weather-cock of the cathedral, and the
smallness of its few windows, qualify it well for this purpose; and a
greater appearance of strength and solidity is given by the solid rock
in which its foundations are embedded, and which in some places is
shaped into wall and moat. We crossed a drawbridge into a court flanked
by four round towers, and having a square keep in its centre. On the top
of one of these towers is an esplanade, from whence the view of the
course of the Rhone, and the great plain of Arles, is fine: the latter
town, which is about nine miles distant, was seen distinctly. We were
rather disappointed by the inside of the castle, which seemed chiefly to
consist of small mean rooms: perhaps the baronial hall might be the